Wash your hands. That’s a common mantra and a worthy one — as the H1N1 flu continues to spread around the globe.

But all the hand-washing in the world may not be a match for the germs and viruses lurking on household surfaces.

“There is a big appreciation for influenza that you can get it from your hands, but a lack of appreciation that viruses can be picked up on surfaces,” said John Oxford, who heads the Hygiene Council and is a professor of virology at St. Bartholomew’s and the Royal London Hospital.

The Hygiene Council — comprising global experts in the field of public health and infectious diseases — recently released the results of its second annual International Home Hygiene Study. The 2009 survey of bacteria found on home surfaces in eight countries, including the U.S., shows that the kitchen remains the source of the most germy surfaces. Kitchen cloths and sponges were the biggest source of bacteria, followed by sink faucets.

We asked Oxford and Joe Rubino, another member of the Hygiene Council and director of research and development in global surface care and protection at Reckitt Benckiser — a corporate sponsor of the council and the maker of Lysol — to identify the dirtiest places in the home and tell us how to keep them germ-free.

1. Kitchen cloths and sponges. People frequently use sponges or cloths to wipe germs from surfaces in the kitchen. As a result, 70 percent of kitchen sponges in U.S. homes failed the hygiene test by having high levels of bacteria, according to the Hygiene Council. The council recommends running sponges through the dishwasher regularly and washing kitchen cloths on the hot cycle in the washing machine.

2. Kitchen faucets. Typically people wash their hands after handling raw meat in the kitchen, but they touch the faucet to turn on the water and do not think about the bacteria that they leave. The Hygiene Council found more than half of faucets in American homes are covered in bacteria.

Use a disinfectant spray on faucets to kill germs.

3. Tub and shower. Rubino identified the shower as the third germiest place in the home. The bathtub may have 100 times more bacteria than the trash can, according to an in-home bacteria study conducted by the Center for Hygiene and Health in Home and Community at Simmons College in Boston.

The Hygiene Council recommends that showers and tubs be disinfected twice a week to get rid of dead skin cells left in the tub that can carry germs too.

4. Pet food dish. Most pet food dishes stay on the floor and do not get washed regularly. Rubino said “it’s not practical to disinfect it every time, but wash your hands after you touch it. Pets — we love them — but they don’t practice good hygiene.”

5. Microwave touch screen. This spot is notorious for not getting cleaned. “You can put something in (the microwave) that is raw to cook it and could leave behind E. coli or salmonella” Rubino said. He added that even though the food comes out cooked, the germs that can make you sick are left on the outside of the microwave for the next person to touch. It is important to wipe down the touch screen regularly, especially after cooking raw meat.

6. TV remote. Imagine the typical couch potatoes — watching TV while they absent-mindedly chew their fingernails, snack on food and flip through channels, leaving all kinds of bacteria on the remote. “Anything in your home that you touch a lot leaves germs behind,” Rubino said.

Make sure to sanitize the remote control regularly to prevent sickness.

7. Light switches. Touching the light switch is practically unavoidable, but keeping it clean is not. The bathroom light switch can have as many germs as the trash bin, according to the Simmons College in-home bacterial study. Disinfect light switches twice a week or every day if a member of your household is sick.

8. Baby changing table. “When changing a baby’s diaper, in all likelihood bacterial contamination will occur,” Rubino said. He likens the changing table to a “dirty toilet seat” that the baby’s whole body touches. During diaper changes, the baby wipes container, the diaper packaging, the trash can and anything around the changing area get contaminated with bacteria through touching after handling a dirty diaper. The baby changing table area should be cleaned often.

More in News

The Denver Art Museum plans to funnel a $25 million one-time gift into the estimated $150 million budget for renovating its iconic North Building in time for the structure’s 50th anniversary in 2021, officials announced Thursday.

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to name fast-food executive Andrew Puzder, a vocal critic of substantially increasing the minimum wage and an opponent of rules that would make more workers eligible for overtime pay, as head of the Labor Department.